The bank-based financial systems of Germany and Japan were considered most conducive to growth in the 1980s. After the Japanese stagnation of the 1990s and the most recent slump in Germany, the conviction that the market-based Anglo-American financial systems are a prerequisite for a dynamic...

The paper questions the predominant view on unemployment and wages in the European Un-ion according to which high unemployment is primarily caused by labour market rigidities, i.e. social institutions and regulations which prevent “market-clearing” real wage levels and structures. It is...